


To Still A Heart

by Capucine



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Wings, Brothers, Feelings, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Wingfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-23
Updated: 2017-03-20
Packaged: 2018-09-01 14:45:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,422
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8628475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Capucine/pseuds/Capucine
Summary: Dick first meets Jason and things don't go too well. But he's determined to make it go better.





	1. Shaking like a Fledgling

**Author's Note:**

> Three part bit. I stole inspiration from a JayRoy fic that was also a wingfic.

Dick had thought he could be utterly furious with Bruce forever. He’d gone and gotten another Robin, another kid, without so much as telling him. He’d found out in the _news_ for fuck’s sake.

But then he’d met Jason.

And maybe he was still mad at Bruce, but he couldn’t be that mad at Jason.

The kid had practically challenged him to a fight on meeting him, when he’d busted his attempt to bust a drug ring. Kid could have been killed, honestly, had Nightwing not shown up, but like that was about to stop Jason from being angry.

He ‘didn’t need a fucking babysitter’ apparently.

And Dick wasn’t always the best with people, and he was still kind of ticked off, but he suddenly recognized the behavior for what it was when Jason’s body language betrayed him: his wings were tucked in tight and trembling. Kid was terrified.

To Dick, that was a pretty solid indicator that this was to prove himself. That he was desperately seeking validation and belonging, and Dick had screwed it up for him (at least, in the kid’s mind).

He’d calmly approached, his own wings spread some, and Jason had watched him in confusion.

Up until he got close and reached towards Jason’s wings.

The kid had practically thrown himself away, cussing up a storm. “The fuck is wrong with you?! The fuck?! Fucking creepyass Robin, that’s what you were, fuck you, goddamnit!”

“Stay still. I just want to know if you’re hurt,” Dick replied, managing to keep his cool at the accusations.

For some reason, Jason let him, and Dick crouched down to where Jason had thrown himself, and carefully touched his wing. The tension there was obvious, and Dick very gently started spreading out the wing.

He noted that Jason was a bit more curled in on himself, uncertainty evident in his posture.

His wing was trembling.

Dick gave it a quick checkover, but it wasn’t hurt. Then he carefully stretched the other one, finding it _was_ hurt, a clear patch of swelling along the arch where he must have gotten hit. The instant he touched it, even lightly, Jason hissed.

Dick carefully let it go, and said, “You know, I know how to treat that.”

“Good for you,” Jason responded.

His wings were tightly tucked again.

Dick sighed. Jason wasn’t about to take good intentions for granted. “Let me treat it for you?”

Jason eyed him warily, and finally said, “Only if you don’t tell Batman about this whole thing.”

Which was actually Dick conceding more, but he let that slide. Batman didn’t strictly need to know that he’d stopped Jason from being killed by drug dealers, and anyways, it kind of delighted him that Jason already wanted privacy from Bruce’s all-knowing eye.

“Okay, fine. Come on.”

He was slightly surprised when Jason hesitated to follow him, but then impressed by the speed the kid put in to keep up. Like he really had to prove himself to Nightwing.

The kid was fast, and fairly strong, but there was a certain amount of tension to his movements that seemed to inhibit him, at least in Dick’s opinion.

They got to his ‘nest’ and Dick disabled his alarm, letting Jason in.

The kid paused, eyes flickering to Dick, like he was making a decision. He said nothing, not when he was indecisive or when he’d decided, going in. His wings seemed to shiver slightly. He looked surprisingly small for stocky kid he was.

They were inside, and Dick carefully shut the door. Then he said, “Come on, sit on the floor.”

He grabbed his medical kit and settled on the floor. Then, and only then, did Jason finally join him. 

His wings were a grayish color, and Dick had the brief thought that maybe he was young enough his adult feathers hadn’t even grown in yet, but then he realized his wings were just messy, not downy feathers.

He extended Jason’s wing with his hand, feeling it still quivering under his touch. The wing was lightweight, delicate, and he could feel Jason’s feathers were a little greasier than they should have been under his fingers.

“Hold still. I’m not going to hurt you,” Dick said, getting the anti-inflammatory gel out.

“No shit!” Jason snapped, as if the idea that he’d expect to be hurt was ludicrous.

Dick rolled his eyes. “Stop shaking like a fledgling if you’re so sure.”

And that was too much for Jason. Even though Dick had barely begun to put the gel on, Jason’s wing jerked out of his hold, the feathers getting ruffled in a way that had to be at least uncomfortable, if not outright painful. “Fuck you! I’ll fix it myself!”

He was already standing to leave, but Dick was up on his feet fast and said, “Whoa, what the hell? I didn’t do anything to you!”

“And you’re not gonna, asshole!” Jason snarled, and, wings tucked tight, he moved for the door.

“Stop being an idiot and let me help you!” Dick snapped, and again, wrong thing to say.

“I’m not an idiot, you fucking piece of shit!” He managed to dodge past Dick, and had the door open fast.

“Come on, Batman’ll kill me if you get hurt!” Dick tried, kind of hoping to appeal to the whole ‘hiding secrets from Batman’ camaraderie they had earlier.

“Fuck you, I hope he does!”

And with that, Jason ran off.

And it was about then Dick realized that maybe Jason needed more help and acceptance than he’d thought.


	2. Eating like a Bird

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Encountering Jason while he eats a forbidden meal gives Dick better insight. Sort of.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (now a planned four-parter)

Dick got the sense it would be difficult to reach Jason, especially after their interaction after the drug ring deal. So, he bided his time, not trying to rush into it.

He found Robin out and about by himself again about two weeks later. 

What surprised him was that the kid seemed to be having a pretty good time, kicking his feet back and forth and digging into a burger, perched on the ledge of a twelve story building. It almost made Dick think of himself—up until Jason spotted him, and stopped looking so gleeful, legs stilling.

“What do you want?”

“Glad to see you’re enjoying your food,” Dick returned, and Jason scowled at him, wiping some condiments and crumbs from his face.

“Batman said I could.”

His wings had drawn in tighter, Dick noted. And they were still a mess.

Did no one teach this kid how to groom his wings? Dick suspected the answer was that, no, no one had taught him. And it didn’t occur to Bruce to teach him because Bruce didn’t know what to do with children who still needed to learn these things.

“I believe you.”

“Like heck you do,” Jason returned, grumpily taking another bite.

There was a half full cup of fries, and drink with condensation on the sides. Jason must have been pretty peckish.

Wait, _heck?_

From the way Jason stiffened defensively, he knew that Dick had noticed that. “Not sposta freakin cuss, okay? It’s not appropriate for a young man of my age.”

Alfred. Dick stifled a laugh at the thought, wondering if Alfred had washed Jason’s mouth out with soap or somesuch. In any case, he had quite the task before him, Dick assumed. Even though he himself had heard dirty language of every stripe by the time he moved in to Wayne Manor (circus performers can put sailors to shame any day), he hadn’t used it much at all. And had swiftly learned not to use it at all.

“So. Can I nab a fry?” Dick asked, trying to be friendly. Jason sucked his bottom lip, evidently making a decision.

“Fine. You can have _one._ But that’s it,” Jason informed him, still regarding him suspiciously. 

It was like he suspected Dick of being the sort of person who’d take all the fries. Dick didn’t seem to recall having that problem when hanging with his friends, but Jason didn’t know him. Clearly.

He swallowed down the slight anger at the thought that Bruce had barely informed Jason of him. Jason wasn’t the one to be mad at, anyway.

So, he sat down next to him, enjoying the late night breeze on his wings and a single fry. Which was inordinately greasy, and he had to ask, “God, where’d you _get_ these?”

Jason frowned at him. “Greasy Howie’s.”

“Well, that’s an accurate name, at least.” Dick wondered if it was some hole in the wall establishment, the sort that tried to evade food inspectors and continue on in unsanitary and vaguely illegal ways. The burger seemed to glint with grease as well.

“Yeah. Howie always looks kinda greasy.” Jason apparently had to concede that, even if he’d looked slightly offended at first. There was still tension in his posture, in the way his wings were drawn to his body, but he didn’t seem ready to bolt.

“So.” Dick tried to think of something to talk about. “You get greasy food like this often?”

“Yes. Every day,” came the sarcastic retort.

Dick bit back an ‘I’m trying to be friendly, kid’ and asked instead, “So where’s the Big Bat?”

“Busy doing things without you,” Jason snapped, and ouch. 

Dick’s teeth clenched at that, and he found he probably shouldn’t speak for a moment, because all the words coming to mind were along the lines of ‘well he can go fuck himself.’ 

Jason seemed to pick up on that, and lean away from him a little, posture going far more tense.

And that made Dick take a breath, remember that Bruce was a fucking child at times, and look back at Jason, forcing a smile onto his face and trying hard to look friendly. “Okay. How’s Alfred?”

Apparently, he looked more like the Hamburglar, because Jason turned away, seeming almost protective of his burger and himself. “He’s fucking fine.”

“He won’t be glad to know you’re cussing again.”

Wrong move, because Jason glared at him. “I’m not freaking cussing, don’t tell on me! Fu—freaking snitch, you--”

“Whoa, whoa, I’m not telling,” Dick assured. He was somewhat surprised by how easy it was to trigger this attitude in Jason, and it needled him a little.

Jason still frowned, and took a large bite out of his burger. He looked like he wanted to fight with Dick, and yet, he didn’t. At all.

They were silent a moment. It was uncomfortable.

“You’re not gonna tell Batman, right?” Jason finally said, looking at him unsurely. There was a suspicious shade to his gaze, and he seemed to struggle to look more directly towards Dick’s face. 

“No, I’m not,” Dick said, sitting more solidly on the ledge. 

Jason seemed to relax slightly. “Yeah, okay.”

More uncomfortable silence. Dick had really hoped it would go better than this.

Dick leaned back, flaring out his wings in a stretch, and letting his arms join them. He had been busy a lot of the day, and he was a little achy. He looked over, and he was a little surprised to see Jason’s wings seem to tuck in tighter against his body. He hadn’t been sure that was possible.

“You know,” Dick said, as casually as he could, “You’re going to hurt your wings if you keep them like that all the time.”

Jason flushed, and his wings loosened in a very tense way. He held them out a little from his body like they were as stiff as cardboard. Dick’s best guess was that he was only doing it to prove him wrong. As it was, his wings looked as greasy and tangled as before, if not more so.

Dick tried not to get too close this time, offering, “Do you have anyone to help you with your wings?”

Jason scowled at him. “Of course!”

“Ah, my mistake. I guess my next question is, why aren’t they helping you?”

That might have been a little arrogant, but instead, Jason deflated a little. His wings twitched, like he was about to tuck them in closer, but remembered just in time. “You’re an asshole.”

“Alfred--”

“Alfred can’t hear me cussing!”

Dick tried a softer tone. “I was going to say, Alfred might help you with them, if you ask.”

Jason turned red all over again. “Yeah, well...whatever.”

While Dick had a hard time understanding wanting to keep your wings tucked like that, on a basic level, he got the concept. It was typically a fear thing. It was something someone who had no space did. The part Dick didn’t understand was that Jason had all the space he could ever want now, and yet, very often, his wings were tucked like that.

It made sense, and yet, it made none to Dick.

“I mean...I could help. We did that a lot in the circus.”

Jason looked over at his words, seeming to take him in very critically. But Dick was used to a critical eye, and sat coolly through that. 

And the way Jason’s wings twitched suggested that, yes, he would like the help, that his wings ached and felt uncomfortable as unkempt as they were, but his eyes changed to shut away and he stood. “You can have the rest of the fries, I gotta go back to Batman.”

With that, he took off.

Dick sighed, eating the fries. He kind of was starting to feel that it might be his own fault they didn’t get along.

He’d figure this out eventually.

Jason might be a tough nut to crack, but he’d figure it out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy New Year! I hope this is up to snuff and that y'all have a great 2017!
> 
> I am mostly recovered from my concussion, so I've had a pretty decent 2017 already, lol.


	3. Wings Aflutter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dick finally tracks down and gets to know Jason.

Jason was a hard little fledgling to track down at times.

At others, not so much.

Dick had a harder time avoiding Bruce in his search for Jason, in all honesty. But, he had another chance when he found Jason perched on another ledge, breathing heavy and nursing a rapidly forming bruise on his face.

Dick had no doubt there was more damage, and, after momentarily scanning the area for other attackers, swooped in.

Jason startled backwards, wings jerking out in a panic, but he soon saw it was Dick. “Oh, it’s just you.”

His voice still shook slightly.

“Were you fighting here alone?” Dick demanded.

“Yeah, why do you care?” Jason had clearly meant it to sound only aggressively confrontational, but instead, there were definite tones of pleading. As in, _why in hell’s name did Dick care at all?_

Dick blinked at that, and settled down next to Jason, reaching out and tilting his face gently. “Well, I mean, it would reflect pretty badly on me if something happened to you this fast.”

Jason scowled. “I’m fine--” he winced, letting out a pained noise through his teeth.

“Yeah, you’re not,” Dick insisted. “Let at least look at you.”

Jason huffed, but sat still. His wings were tucked in extremely tight, but one of them was hanging a little crooked. Dick hoped his wing wasn’t harmed, but it was highly likely that it was. He finished looking over Jason’s face, feeling it was safe to say his face wasn’t broken, and then moved to circle around Jason to get a look at his wings.

Instead, Jason scrambled to keep him facing him.

“I don’t know if you know this, but it’s impossible to check a wing for a break if you can’t see the wing,” Dick commented dryly.

“Don’t touch me!” Jason snapped instead of acknowledging that, and that made Dick soften his approach. Jason was clearly not in a good place.

“Okay, I’m seriously not going to hurt you. But your wing looks hurt, and I want to help; please let me.”

Jason shuddered, pulling his legs in tight and wrapping his arms around them. “No.”

If anyone was curled as small as they could go without lying down, right now, it was Jason. It seemed his instinct right this second was to curl in on himself and hide. But that was impossible in a Robin costume, and that was impossible when it was Dick Grayson who wanted to help.

“Come on. Jay, I promise I won’t hurt you,” Dick said, softening both his posture and voice.

“Batman’ll be here soon, it’s fine,” Jason insisted, scowling.

“Please,” Dick said, doing his absolute best to be nonthreatening. “Please, let me help. I won’t tell Batman, I swear.”

Jason seemed to hesitate on that, and that gave Dick hope.

“He might never even have to know.”

At that, Jason swallowed, and spread his wings very slightly. “...okay.”

Dick didn’t ask twice, coming in and checking his wing. It was undeniably broken, and Dick hesitated to set it. Wings were tricky business, in some ways. For the moment, he spread some cooling gel on it, that would at least take some of the pain away. And then, he started to work on the other wing.

The wing trembled under his touch, and Dick was reminded of touching a baby bird. He gently started to untangle the feathers, to smooth out the oily spots, and so on. He hoped to get Jason to _relax_ , as his current tension made it hard to so much as attempt to properly treat his broken wing.

Jason seemed to try to stay tense anyway, but he said nothing. So Dick spoke.

“What are you doing out here on your own anyway? I won’t tell.”

Jason murmured, “Just had stuff to do.”

“Such as?”

“Such as none of your...” he seemed to shudder a little, as it seemed almost as though part of his wing just released whatever muscles had been holding it tight. He instead said, “Such as, assholes who’re trying to blackmail me.”

“Blackmail?”

“Yeah. They can tell I was...well, they know I’m one of them,” Jason admitted. “Not _who_ I am, but I can’t let them think it’d be easy to figure out, right?”

“Well, right,” Dick had to agree. He was lucky there weren’t exactly a lot of people who’d easily recognize him as a circus performer in Gotham.

He continued to work, watching as Jason’s wings drooped and drooped. Dick knew from experience that it was a good feeling to have someone else work on your wings—it had been his favorite thing that his mother did for him. She’d also taught him enough that he could manage it himself.

He still missed her. But not in the same way as Bruce missed his parents, he thought—he wasn’t trapped in that tragedy in the same way.

 

He could continue to grow.

Jason glanced back at him for a second, and Dick could see his cheeks were flushed. Pink and actually kind of adorable, like he didn’t know what to do about Dick working on his wings. It had likely been years since his mother or foster mother had done it.

“I’m going to set your wing,” Dick informed him, and Jason braced himself. He seemed almost confused at the lack of pain when Dick did it, or relative lack of pain, anyway. Dick got a plaster on it, and then said, “Well, we’ll have to invent a story to tell Bruce, right?”

Jason nodded slowly. “Yeah.”

He seemed almost dazed, fluttering his unbroken wing in a somewhat absent way. Like it was suddenly lighter than air. Dick couldn’t even imagine how locked up they must have been.

And he suddenly felt a weird rush of protective affection for the kid when he looked over at him almost shyly. “We—I could tell him that I just slipped.”

“What about your face? Or whatever other bruises you got?”

Jason frowned, but still looked very relaxed about the whole thing. “I could say I had to fight someone on my way home from school today.”

Dick raised his eyebrows. “Wait, Bruce didn’t even see you before you came out here as Robin? Does he know where you are at all?”

Shame seemed to flood Jason’s face, and he looked down at his boots. He shook his head. 

“Except that he does,” came the stern tone, and Dick’s heart sank, a disappointment as he turned to face Bruce. Jason startled around, absolutely flustered.

This was going to be fun to explain.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel the feeling Jason has would be similar to getting a shoulder massage, cause oh my god, I felt like heaven when I got one. It had been literal years since my shoulders were as tight as hell. It hadn't even realized they were so tense, it'd been so long.
> 
> :) 
> 
> Hope you enjoyed it!


	4. A Basket of Eggs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dick and Bruce have a discussion.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ta da!

Dick found he couldn’t quite conjure up the words. The silhouette of the Batman, obviously trying to look imposing, brought back a wave of feelings, at least half of them anger.

He knew Bruce’s wings were white in the daytime. Right now, they were dark as the night itself, or as dark as it would be without Gotham’s light pollution. And Jason’s were a lot grayer as Robin than as himself.

He himself enhanced the flares of blue in his wings and darkened the grayish-black to sheer black. It was all part of obscuring their identities. Bruce had long ago figured out a way to do that _quickly._

When Dick was younger, he’d merely blacked out his wings. Right then, Bruce was eyeing the streaks of blue he’d made so eye-catching.

So Dick settled for a nonchalant, “Hey, B.”

Bruce’s mouth was set in a grim, unfriendly line. He turned his attention to Jason almost instantly, saying, “Robin. We’re going home.”

_Ouch._ Dick felt a flare of anger, of _you always do this_ about to force its way out of his throat.

“But Batman, I was just--” Jason started, wings starting to hunch in more, and goddamnit, that was the last straw, Dick had _just_ gotten them loose and taken care of for the first time in probably a long time.

“Batman, you might not like it, but Robin did good work here tonight. And so did I.”

Bruce had turned to actually face him now, and his mouth still had a stern bend to it. His dark wings seemed to flutter a little, which was not quite a warning sign of attack, despite the obvious tension.

For a tense moment, he said nothing. Then he finally said, “I see.”

“Oh, is that it?” Dick said back, almost surprising himself. It felt like he was starting to fall back into the same bickering patterns with Bruce, and he could see Bruce seem to realize that too, and turn away from him more.

Like it was his fault Bruce wouldn’t communicate at all.

Jason was watching in general confusion, like he wasn’t certain what he was looking at. Dick knew it had to be a peculiar relationship to watch be on the rocks—Bruce wasn’t quite his dad, but he certainly wasn’t quite a friend or brother either. He was somewhere in between. It was what happened when someone in his early twenties decided to take in a kid around half his age out of the goodness of his heart, but without any clear plan or a realization that he’d need one.

He didn’t doubt Bruce loved him. That was probably related to why they fought so much before Dick left.

“B. Come on, talk to me,” he found himself saying, “If not for my sake, at least for his.”

And _that_ made Bruce’s shoulders hunch, just a little, and he seemed to struggle to find the words. “He’s not your replacement,” he finally said.

While Dick couldn’t deny that that thought had crossed his mind, that hadn’t been what he meant.

At the same time, _of course_ Jason was his replacement. Not in the sense that Bruce seemed to think, but in the sense that Bruce needed to have someone like him in his life, in the sense that Bruce needed to care for someone.

After having met Jason, though, Dick was starting to think maybe that wasn’t actually bad.

Bruce needed someone to care for, and, honestly, Jason needed someone to care for him. And Jason was not a bad kid, he just...needed someone. Needed to know he could be safe, Dick guessed. 

And maybe a flare of irritation rose in him, as he thought that Bruce might not be the best one for that, but still. Somehow, realizing how desperately Bruce needed to care about someone sort of made him realize, in a different way, how human Bruce was.

“Jay is his own person, yeah,” Dick agreed. 

Bruce seemed to relax, fractionally, at that. He gestured towards Jason, expecting him to follow, but Dick spoke again.

“He is his own person, and he doesn’t deserve to be in the middle of…this.” He wasn’t sure what to call it.

He could also see that Jason was not liking the turn this had taken. “I worked hard to be Robin!” he snapped, a slight, frightened high to his tone.

Bruce’s jaw sounded tense as he said, “Robin--”

He’d stopped abruptly. And that was when Dick both remembered he wasn’t Robin and realized that Bruce had called him by the wrong name. The moment was tight with tension, like a balloon stretched over something way too big.

He could see that Jason was frightened, angry, knowing instantly that he wasn’t the Robin being addressed. He could see the stony way that Bruce’s jaw was clamped shut. He could feel the tense arch his own wings had taken.

What happened next was nothing short of a miracle.

“Nightwing. I...apologize,” Bruce said, voice very quiet.

The shock at Bruce using the codename he’d chosen, in spite of his disapproval, _and_ apologizing for the wrong name, was enough to break the tension for Dick. “It’s...okay. Old habits die hard. And… I’m okay with Jay being Robin. He’s earned it; but, I really would have liked it if you’d asked first.”

The shock from Bruce was palpable, like this hadn’t even occurred to him. It probably hadn’t.

“Yes,” he finally said, which Dick figured was as close to a second apology as he was going to get tonight. 

“So. I’ll see you and Jay and Agent A soon. Easter’s coming up, right? I’ve missed the food,” Dick said, as nonchalantly as possible.

Bruce nodded. “There will be ham.”

Dick smiled a little. Then smiled purposefully over at Jason. The kid looked vaguely confused, but at least not afraid or angry. He murmured, “See you.”

It was a sort of subdued tone, but in a good sense. In the way his wing was still fluttering a little, like it hadn’t moved like that in years. There was a hopeful look on Jason’s face.

Dick would later learn that Bruce hadn’t punished Jason for being out and about without permission. He would also later learn that Alfred’s potatoes were still as glorious as ever. And that what Jason had needed more than almost anything was a big brother.

Good thing that was what he got.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THE END!!!
> 
> (sorry)
> 
> I was excited to finish this one, but let me know if it makes sense, as endings aren't my strongest suit.

**Author's Note:**

> This'll be three parts! :D Cause I want to finish a story and have the plan in place to finish the fucking story. :P
> 
> This isn't the most logical or scientifically plausible work, but I'm doing what I can to stay within reason.


End file.
